UK Government in Trouble Over Planned Digital Identity Scheme – Again

The UK government has been accused of ‘constitutional ignorance’ after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on contracts for a digital identity scheme before it had even launched a consultation into the project.

The ‘i’ newspaper reports that the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has opened a call for evidence into how best to roll out a new digital identity programme across the country. The department said it would look at ways to ‘create a new system to make digital identities as trusted and secure as official documents, such as passports’.

The government added that digital identities, available through smartphone apps and other web-based services, would hold ‘many advantages over paper documents’, including reducing fraud and widening access to ID for people unable to obtain a passport.